Adjustable guide assembly for feeding bottles and the like to a horizontal moving platform

ABSTRACT

A plurality of vertical dividers is suspended over a moving horizontal platform so as to receive a plurality of rows of oblong articles such as bottles moving on the platform. The dividers are shaped so as to separate the rows as they are carried by the platform and to thereafter turn the separated rows approximately 45 degrees in a horizontal plane so as to discharge the rows of articles at the latter angle onto a second horizontal platform moving in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the first-mentioned platform.

United States Patent Pund et al. Oct. 23, 1973 ADJUSTABLE GUIDE ASSEMBLYFOR FEEDING BOTTLES AND THE LIKE TO A Primary Examiner-Edward A. SrokaHORIZONTAL MOVING PLATFORM Attorney--Dean S. Edmonds et al.

[75 Inventors: Francis X. mia; Ralph? Lippert,

both of Cincinnati, Ohio [5 7] ABSTRACT [73] Assigneez M A plurality ofvertical dividers is suspended over a Cincinnati Ohio moving horizontalplatform so as to receive a plurality of rows of oblong articles such asbottles moving on [22] Fil d J y 1972 the platform. The dividers areshaped so as to separate the rows as they are carried by the platformand to 74, 2 [21] Appl No 2 89 thereafter turn the separated rowsapproximately 45 degrees in a horizontal plane so as to discharge the[52] US. Cl. 198/32 rows of articles at the latter angle onto a secondhori- [5 Int. Clonta] platform moving in a direction perpendicular toField Search 33 AB the direction of movement of the first-mentionedplatform.

{56] References Cited 4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures ADJUSTABLE GUIDEASSEMBLY FOR FEEDING BOTTLES AND THE LIKE TO A HORIZONTAL MOVINGPLATFORM This invention relates to guides for rows of moving articlesand, more particularly, to a guide assembly for transferring a pluralityof rows of upright oblong articles moving in a direction along thelarger horizontal dimension of the articles from one horizontal movingplatform to a second horizontal platform moving in a directionperpendicular to the direction of the firstmentioned platform.

In the handling of large quantities of articles such as bottles so as toconvey them automatically through the various operations of filling,capping, labeling, and the like, the articles must be established instable handling position on the moving platform that carries themthrough any such operation. Although the flatness of the bottom surfaceof these articles can be designed for maximum stability of the articlesin the upright position, the use of articles having a horizontallyoblong cross-section, whether rectangular or curved, imposes aninherently unstable condition upon the carrying of rows of such articlesbecause of their tendency, particularly when composed of light-weightmaterial such as plastic, to topple in the direction of their smallerhorizontal dimension. The resulting domino effect, with its excessivemanual handling required to right the toppled articles, has dictatedthat the articles be carried by moving platforms in the direction oftheir larger horizontal dimension for maximum stability.

In feeding such articles onto a conveyor line carrying the articles in adirection along their larger horizontal dimension, the articles aregenerally supplied in the form of a plurality of rows of the articles ina supporting structure called a corrugate. The array of articles in thecorrugate is virtually undisturbed when the corrugate is removed so asto leave the array of articles on a moving feed platform. The array ofarticles on the platform, thus arranged upright in a plurality of rowswith the articles in each row aligned in the direction of their largerhorizontal dimension, must then be transferred to a primary carrier onwhich the articles are arranged in a single row again aligned in thedirection of their larger horizontal dimension, and this transfer mustbe capable of being made even when the size of the articles, and henceits horizontal dimension, is changed. Consolidation of a plurality ofrows of articles into a single row of articles requires control of theirfeed onto the primary carrier, and this result is conventionallyachieved by arranging the direction of movement of the feed carrierplatform perpendicular to that of the primary moving carrier.

We have now devised an adjustable guide assembly for horizontallytransferring a plurality of rows of upright articles of oblonghorizontal dimensions from one moving platform to an adjacent secondplatform moving substantially perpendicular to the direction of thefirst-mentioned platform. The adjustable guide assembly of the presentinvention comprises a) row receiving means adapted to receive aplurality of rows of articles carried by the first-mentioned platform ina direction along the larger horizontal dimension of the article, b) rowseparating means adapted to separate the moving rows of articles in adirection along the smaller horizontal dimension of the articles, c) rowturning means adapted to turn the separated rows of articles uniformlyapproximately 45 in a horizontal plane so as to discharge the articlesin the thus-turned direction onto the second-mentioned moving platform,(I) support means for supporting the guide above the first-metnionedmoving platform, and e) adjusting means adapted to move the supportmeans horizontally to effect uniform horizontal movement of thereceiving means, separating means and turning means to accomodate achange in the samller horizontal dimention of the articles in said rows.

These and other novel features of the invention will be more readilyunderstood from the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings in which FIG. 1 is a plan view of the adjustableguide assembly of the invention positioned above a feed conveyor forguiding rows of upright oblong articles onto an adjacent primaryconveyor;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the adjustable guide assembly taken alongthe line 2-2 in FIG. 1:

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the adjustable guide assembly taken alongline 3-3 in FIG. 1:

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view looking down on the top ofthe guideassembly of FIG. 1 and showing the path of movement of the rows ofarticles; and FIG. 5 is an enlarged detail plan view of structure withinthe circle 55 in FIG. 1.

The adjustable guide assembly comprises, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, aplurality of guide members 10 suspended above a moving feed platform,such as an endless belt 11, by supporting rods 12 depending frombushings 13 secured to the pivot points 14 of each of two horizontallyspaced conventional panotgraphs 15. Each guide member 10 has asubstantially straight feedreceiving end portion 10a aligned with thedirection of movement of the belt 11, an intermediate rowseparatingportion 10b, and a curved discharge end portion 100. Each guide member10 is advantageously but not necessarily formed of sheet material suchas metal so as to present to the rows of articles moving on the belt 11two exterior guide surfaces 16a and 16b (FIG. 5). The same guidesurfaces are provided when the guide members are solid rather than beingformed of sheet material. The guides 10 are so positioned with respectto one another that the respective facing guide surfaces 16a and 16b ofany pair of proximal guide members define a guide channel of uniformaxial width from the receiving end to the discharge end of thecooperating guide surface. The width of the channel is slightly inexcess of the smaller horizontal dimension of an upright article beinghandled.

Each channel-forming guide member 10, excepting the endmost members ofthe assembly, has its guide surfaces 16a and 16b closely positionedalong its straight receiving end portion 100, has its guide surfacesdiverging from such close position along its rowseparating portion 10b,and has its guide surfaces again converging progressively to a closedposition along its curved discharge end portion 100. Such an arrangementof guide surfaces can be obtained readily, as shown for example in FIG.1, by forming each of said guides from a single strip of sheet metalfolded transversely to define the extreme end of the curved dischargeportion l0c of the guide and extending back to the junction of thestraight row-receiving end portion 10a and the adjoining row-separatingportion 10b, as shown in detail in FIG. 5. The folded backportion of thestrip can be joined to the main body of the strip at said junction bysoldering, welding, plastic bonding, or the like.

The only significant difference in the shape of the individual guidemembers of the full assembly resides in the angle of divergence of theircentral row-separating portions 10b. For example, in the center of theassembly of guide members shown in FIG. 1, the proximal guide surfaces16a and 16b of the row-separating portions 10b of the two adjacent guidemembers are virtually aligned with their respective receiving endsurfaces, whereas the respective distal guide surfaces 16b and 16a ofthese adjacent row-separating guide member portions diverge at asignificant angle from their respective receiving-end portion surfaces.A corresponding progressive divergence is incorporated in the guidesurfaces of the row-separating portion of each pair of successiveadjacent guide members with the result that the guide surfaces defineuniformly wide guide rows for the articles with each adjacent rowprovided with an increasing amount of divergence to effect uniformseparation of each row, at the point of maximum seperation, at. leastequal to the larger horizontal dimension of the upright oblong articles.The articles thus become sufficiently separated from one another by thetime they are discharged onto and are carried away by the primary movingplatform, such as a conventional endless conveyor 17, that the articlesof each row discharged from the feed belt transversely alternate withone another on the primary conveyor in narrow edgeto-narrow edgeabutment.

The channel-forming guide members 10 do not require any change of shapeto accomodate articles over a substantial range of variations in thesmaller of their horizontal dimensions. The only change which need bemade in the guide assembly, when changing the feed to a different sizebottle within a reasonable range, is to change the width of each guiderow by moving the guide members toward or away from one another. To dothis, the guide members are supported conventionally on the overheadpantographs l and by an endmost pantographs 18. The pantographs 18 ismounted on slide plates 19 which can be moved individually orsimultaneously to alter the position and the spacing, respectively, ofthe receiving end portions a of the guide members which are secured tothe pivot points 18a of the pantographs by L-shaped brackets 20. Thepantographs 15, however, are mounted to expand or contract on fixedsupporting threaded rods 21 interconnected by a drive chain 22 so thatboth pantographs expand or contract equally. The pantographs 15 can belocated at'any convenient position for supporting the guide members,although we have found it advantageous to position one pantograph 15 sothat its depending guide member supporting rods 12 can be secured to theguide members in the space between the joined portions of the guidemember near the junction of their straight receiving end portions 10aand their rowseparating portions 10b. The other pantograph 15 isadvantageously located above the row-separating portion 10b of the guidemembers with each of its depending guide member supporting rods 12secured to a mounting bracket 23 which also serves as a spacer for thetwo folded-over sections of the guide member that define therow-separating portion 10b of each guide member. Thus, the twopantographs 15 can be operated to control the guide channel-formingspacing between the concentric row-separating and row-turning portionsof the guide members 10. The pantograph 18 can be adjusted not only toprovide the same spacing between the receiving end portions of the guidemembers but further to align these end portions with the guide portionssupported by the other two pantographs 15 so that the receiving endportions of the guide channels are aligned with the direction ofmovement of the feed belt 11.

As mentioned previously, the shape of the guide members remainsunchanged as their spacing is changed to accommodate bottles ofdifferent smaller horizontal oblong dimensions. In FIG. 1, for example,it will be noted that the spacing between any pair of channel-definingguide surfaces remains uniform perpendicular to the axis of the channelthroughout the length of the channel defined by the guide surfaceportions 16a and 16b of guide portions 10a, 10b and 100. However,because of the difference in curvature of the channel-defining guidesurfaces of guide portion 100, the spacing between these surfacesdecreases more slowly than throughout the remainder of the channel andcauses a significant divergence of these surfaces by the time the guidesurfaces have been moved toward one another to reduce the width ofchannel to one-half through all of guide portions 10a and 10b. When thisdivergence becomes sufficiently large with respect to the smallerhorizontal dimension (that is, the width of the oblong articles movingthrough the channels aligned in the larger horizontal dimension) thereis a tendency for the articles to overlap or shingle? adjacent thedischarge end of each channel. When this happens, it indicates the lowerlimit of articles size which can be handled by the guide assembly ofthat specific size and the feed of articles of this size or smaller willrequire another guide assembly of smaller proportions or the use offiller inserts to restore the desired curvature of one of the divergingpairs of guide surfaces of cooperating guide portions 10c.

The height of the guide members 10, that is the transverse width of thesheet material of which they are formed, need only be sufficient toprovide upright support for the articles as they move in rows. It hasbeen found advantageous in practice, however, to reduce the height ofthe guide members along the feed end of their receiving end portions 10ato the minimum supporting height so as to facilitate delivery ofarticles to this end of the guide assembly from an array of the articlessupplied in a corrugate, or the like, and to increase the height of theguide members throughout the remainder of their length to providemaximum insurance of support for the articles.

Discharge of the articles, such as the bottles 24, at an angle of 45 tothe directions of travel of both the feed belt 11 and the primarycarrier 17 is a particularly advantageous feature of the guide assemblyof the invention. Although this angle can be decreased to as little asabout 30 and can be increased to about 50 without significantlyinterfering with proper guidance of the bottles, it has been found thatwhen the discharge angle of the guide channels is limited to about 45over the end of the feed belt adjacent the carrier belt the moments offorce imparted to the bottles at the discharge ends of the channelscontinue to advance the bottles toward the primary carrier 17 withoutcausing the bot tles to jam against the extreme curved discharge ends ofthe guide members. At the same time, this controlled angularity of theentry of the oblong-shaped bottles onto the primary carrier 17, togetherwith the separation of bottles discharged from the ends of adjacentguide channels, facilitates the insertion of each bottle into its properposition in the desired edge-to-edge final alignment of the bottles onthe primary carrier. This final alignment can be further promoted by ahorizontally oscillating bar 25 which pulsatingly taps the shoulders ofthe partially turned bottles 24 as they move forward on the primarycarrier 17 and as they are pushed laterally by the feed belt 11 againsta support bar 26 aligned with the side of the primary carrier 17 distalwith respect to the feed belt.

It will be appreciated, accordingly, that the guide assembly of thepresent invention is readily adapted for installation on existingconventional feed and carrier equipment and that this guide assemblymakes it possible to receive pre-assembled arrays of articles such asplastic oblong bottles arranged in a plurality of rows and to feed themin their most stable arrangement into a similarly stable arrangement ina single row on a conventional moving carrier platform.

We claim:

1. An adjustable guide assembly for horizontally transferring aplurality of rows of upright articles of oblong horizontal dimensionsfrom one moving platform to an adjacent second platform movingsubstantially perpendicular to the direction of the first-mentionedplatform, the guide assembly comprising a) row receiving means adaptedto receive a plurality of rows of articles carried by thefirst-mentioned platform in a direction along the larger horizontaldimension of the article, b) row separating means adapted to separatethe moving rows of articles in a direction along the smaller horizontaldimension of the articles, c) row turning means adapted to turn theseparated rows of articles uniformly approximately 45 degrees 1n ahorizontal plane so as to discharge-the articles in the thus-turneddirection onto the second-mentioned moving platform, d) support meansfor supporting the guide above the to an adjacent second platform movingsubstantially perpendicular to the direction of the first platform, theguide assembly comprising a plurality of guide members adapted to besuspended above the firstmentioned moving platform, each guide memberhaving one substantially straight feed end portion and one curveddischarge end portion, each guide member having guide surfaces uniformlyspaced from the proximal guide surfaces of adjacent guide members so asto define guide channels of uniform width slightly in excess of thesmaller horizontal dimension of the articles, the guide channels of thestraight feed end portion of each member being closely positioned andthe guide channels of the curved discharge end portion diverging fromsaid close positioning to a maximum divergent position progressivelyalong the curved end portion of the guide member, the spacing betweenthe articles at their maximum divergent position being slightly inexcess of the larger horizontal dimension of the articles, and means forsupporting the guide members above the firstmentioned moving platform inthe aforesaid position to define said guide channels.

4. A guide assembly according to claim 3 in which the curved dischargeend portions of the guide members are disposed at an angle of about4saeg'ies'ta the straight feed end portions thereof.

1. An adjustable guide assembly for horizontally transferring aplurality of rows of upright articles of oblong horizontal dimensionsfrom one moving platform to an adjacent second platform movingsubstantially perpendicular to the direction of the first-mentionedplatform, the guide assembly comprising a) row receiving means adaptedto receive a plurality of rows of articles carried by thefirst-mentioned platform in a direction along the larger horizontaldimension of the article, b) row separating means adapted to separatethe moving rows of articles in a direction along the smaller horizontaldimension of the articles, c) row turning means adapted to turn theseparated rows of articles uniformly approximately 45 degrees in ahorizontal plane so as to discharge the articles in the thus-turneddirection onto the second-mentioned moving platform, d) support meansfor supporting the guide above the first-mentioned moving platform, ande) adjusting means adapted to move the support means horizontally toeffect uniform horizontal movement of the receiving means, separatingmeans and turning means to accommodate a change in the smallerhorizontal dimension of the articles in said rows.
 2. A guide assemblyaccording to claim 1 in which the guide members are supported above thefirst-mentioned moving platform by a plurality of pantographs.
 3. Anadjustable guide assembly for horizontally transferring a plurality ofrows of upright articles of oblong horizontal dimensions from one movingplatform to an adjacent second platform moving substantiallyperpendicular to the direction of the first platform, the guide assemblycomprising a plurality of guide members adapted to be suspended abovethe first-mentioned moving platform, each guide member having onesubstantially straight feed end portion and one curved discharge endportion, each guide member having guide surfaces uniformly spaced fromthe proximal guide surfaces of adjacent guide members so as to defineguide channels of uniform width slightly in excess of the smallerhorizontal dimension of the articles, the guide channels of the straightfeed end portion of each member being closely positioned and the guidechannels of the curved discharge end portion diverging from said closepositioning to a maximum divergent position progressively along thecurved end portion of the guide member, the spacing between the articlesat their maximum divergent position being slightly in excess of thelarger horizontal dimension of the articles, and means for supportingthe guide members above the first-mentioned moving platform in theaforesaid position to define said guide channels.
 4. A guide assemblyaccording to claim 3 in which the curved discharge end portions of theguide members are disposed at an angle of about 45 degrees to thestraight feed end portions thereof.